The State Attorney’s office is the government agency that has the power to file a charge, not file a charge, and to drop drug charges in Ft Lauderdale. A lot of people use the term dropping when it comes to the state attorney’s office making a decision not to file the charge. Technically, though, the legal terminology is called the filing of a “no information.”
A lot of people are familiar with the federal term, indictment. In State Court, when the State Attorney’s office files a charge, they do it on a document called an information. When they decide not to file a charge, they are not filing an information and then the local terminology as they make an announcement is a “no information.” It is important to have an experienced drug Attorney by your side who can act on your behalf throughout the case.
Filing Process
A drug charge can be dropped in Ft Lauderdale, not immediately but there is an unspoken rule that the State Attorney’s office tries to make a decision to file or not file within the first 21 days after the arrest. It is 21 days from the arrest so that is relatively quick. Recently though, there were some issues with respect to the sheriff’s office crime lab delays. Basically, what happens is if the State Attorney’s office is considering filing charges, they need to test the substance to make sure that it is, in fact, a controlled substance.
Drug cases, when it comes to being filed by the State Attorney’s office, tend to take longer than the standard 21 days. If there is evidence to show that they should file a charge whether it be somebody is in possession, but not possession but can provide after the fact, that a lawful prescription with their other clear cut defenses to the charge, would put the prosecutor in a position to not file the charge.
Prosecution vs. Defense
If the charges are filed, the Prosecutor can drop the Ft Lauderdale drug charge at a later point in time and that tends to take more time. Because the person has a situation where one point in time, the State Attorney’s office thought that they had a good case and they have decided to actually file the charge. This becomes more difficult to convince them otherwise after they made a decision to actually file a charge.
It is a function of what type of defenses there are, what type of evidence can be shown to the prosecutor to indicate that they either can obtain a conviction or cannot go forward. Drug charges can be dropped, but the wheels of justice tend to be on the slow side, but with the exception of getting a prosecutor to drop a charge right away, the more time an Attorney takes on a case and works on a case and defends the case, the greater the likelihood of a charge being dropped or a disposition being better than if the case is handled very quickly.
Role of the Client
The longer they take on a case, the better and it is in the client’s best interest to have their drug defense Attorney take as much time as necessary. Clients tend to like quick resolution but, for the most part, most criminal defense Attorneys assess what is called a flat B basis.
Regardless of how much time the case takes, the client will pay one fee. It is not as if the longer the case takes, the more the client has to pay, that is to the contrary. The longer the case takes, the more work the Attorney does, but they are result-driven and an Attorney builds their reputation on the results that they are able to get for their clients as well as what people say in the community. The more time that they are able to take on the case, the better the outcome. Call today to discuss your case options.
